Come Retribution: The Confederate Secret Service and the Assassination of Lincoln
Joan Wenner’s fine article, “Confederate Secret Service” in our June issue recommended for further reading Come Retribution: The Confederate Secret Service and the Assassination of Lincoln (University Press of Mississippi, 1988). Her citation reminded me how much I enjoyed reading this book almost three decades ago, and reviewing it for The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography.
From the start I was impressed by the three authors’ credentials. William A. Tidwell and David Winfred Gaddy were career military intelligence officers. James O. Hall was a preeminent authority on Abraham Lincoln’s assassination.
All three scholars have since passed away.
Together they set out to argue in Come Retribution that Jefferson Davis and key Confederate Cabinet officers sanctioned a plot to kidnap Lincoln in the spring of 1865, and use him for leverage in negotiations with the U.S. government to end the war.
The story of Rebels nabbing Lincoln is not new, complete with fictional trappings. No less than Joel Chandler Harris—yes, he of the “Uncle Remus” stories—wrote an adventure about how Confederates kidnapped the Northern president and sneaked him to Richmond as hostage. The Southerners were so moved by the Railsplitter’s magnanimity that they let him go.
But back to history, and John Wilkes Booth. After the assassination, U.S. government officials knew that Booth and his co-conspirators had planned to kidnap, not kill Lincoln. William Hanchett, in his The Lincoln Murder Conspiracies (1983), counted at least three Confederate abduction plots. Hanchett stopped short of implicating Jefferson Davis in them.
…which is what Tidwell, Hall and Gaddy attempt to demonstrate. “There is no documentary evidence that directly proves Confederate involvement,” they acknowledge, but add that “circumstantial evidence, however, abounds.” As an example, John Surratt met with Secretary of State Judah Benjamin in late Jan. 1865, leading the authors to conjecture, “Benjamin may have been President Davis’ chief assistant in overseeing the Lincoln
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operation.” Secretary of War James A. Seddon seems to have been in on it, too. A Confederate agent, Thomas N. Conrad, later claimed that Seddon approved a scheme to snatch Lincoln at one of his favorite retreats, the Soldiers’ Home in Washington. As for Davis, the notorious Dahlgren raid upon Richmond in March 1864 had a chilling effect after Confederates learned that the Yankee cavalrymen planned to storm into the capital and kill Davis. “In the first months after the Dahlgren raid, several different schemes to capture Lincoln may have been discussed,” the authors state; “Jefferson Davis, however, was no longer automatically disapproving such ideas.”
Booth and his accomplices began plotting their kidnapping during the fall of 1864. They were waiting for the right time when, on April 1, 1865, the unexpected happened; Grant broke through Lee’s lines at Petersburg. Richmond was evacuated the next day, and Lee surrendered a week later. With no motive left other than vengeance, Booth changed his goal from abduction to assassination. “For six months,” he recorded in his journal, which the authors quote, “we had worked to capture, but our cause being almost lost, something decisive and great must be done.” Booth struck his belated blow for the South at Ford’s Theater on April 14.
Discussion of Booth’s links to Southern agents in Canada, of Seddon’s and Benjamin’s ties to other presidential kidnapping schemes, and of the C.S. War Department’s efforts to secure an escape route out of Washington for the “action team” are particularly intriguing. There is also some colorful guesswork on the role of Col. John S. Mosby in these doings.
Though much of their evidence is circumstantial, the authors’ argument for high-level Confederate involvement is exhaustive, comprehensive, painstaking, and at times close to overkill. For instance, they consulted the Federal Tidal Current Table to gauge levels of the Potomac tributaries which Booth had to cross in his escape from Washington.
In my review for The Virginia Magazine, I observed that it is hard at times to discern when the authors’ documentation ends and when their speculation begins. “On the whole, however,” I concluded, “Come Retribution presents a convincing case that Confederate leaders plotted to have Lincoln kidnapped.” Now, several decades later, present-day conspiracy theories about foreign meddling in U.S. presidential politics, sanctioned at the highest levels, make Tidwell’s, Hall’s and Gaddy’s work of speculative scholarship seem less fanciful than ever.
Steve Davis of Atlanta is a regular contributor to Civil War News and is the Book Review Editor.
His book, A Long and Bloody Task: The Atlanta Campaign from Dalton through Kennesaw Mountain to the Chattahoochee River May 5-July 18, 1864, was published as part of Savas Beatie’s Emerging Civil War paperback series.
The companion volume, All The Fighting They Want: The Atlanta Campaign From Peachtree Creek To The City’s Surrender, July 18-September 2, 1864, has just been published this Spring.
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1. Nathan Bedford Forrest’s Con
2. One of the four stone bridges
3. In the fall of 1861 the United
4. This formidable fortification
5. After Federals broke Bragg’s
6. This Southern spy had her
7. In the Confederate attack at
8. Who was the large-statured
9. After Lincoln’s death, Walt
10. John Ford directed a feature
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federates attacked and overran a Union fort on the Mississippi, Apr. 12, 1864, half of whose
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garrison were Negro troops.
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The Confederates inflicted such heavy casualties that Northerners called it a “massacre.” Name the fort.
across Antietam Creek on the
— MAKER —
battlefield of Sept. 17 was the
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Rohrbach Bridge, but since the battle it also bears the name of a Union corps commander. Who?
Museum Quality
States and Great Britain got into a diplomatic argument after a U.S. naval commander boarded a British steamer in
the Caribbean and seized two Confederate envoys heading
for Europe. Who was the U.S. naval officer, and what was the name of the English vessel?
of logs and sharpened stakes, designed to obstruct infantry assaults, commonly carried a French name translatable as “horses of Friseland.” What do we usually call it?
line at Missionary Ridge, they pursued the retreating Rebels until stopped by the division of what Confederate general? Where?
life ended in Oct. 1864 when, attempting to re-enter the Confederacy from Europe by blockade runner, she drowned off Wilmington. Who?
Second Manassas, Aug. 30, 1862, this New York regiment was virtually destroyed. In about ten minutes, nearly 300 men were shot—120 mortally (Hennessy, Return to Bull Run). Which regiment?
Prussian who served as a major on Jeb Stuart’s staff?
Whitman entitled his mournful poem, “When ___ Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d.” Fill in the name of the blossoming flower. film, starring John Wayne, based on Col. Benjamin Grierson’s raid through Mississippi in April 1863. Name the movie.
Band members are: Elaine Winters – fiddle Daniel Rothwell – banjo Rob Pearcy – guitar and dulcimer
With his issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, President Abraham Lincoln not only decreed that all slaves held in the Southern states were “then, thenceforward, and forever free,” he also officially approved the enlistment of black soldiers into the Union Army. During the next four years, more than 180,000 men of color would answer the call to duty.
One of the rarest and interesting artifacts to come through my studio was an honor banner, displayed by the 21st Regiment of the United States Colored Troops during Civil War processions and parades. The banner is certainly one of the earliest, largest, and most ornate artifacts from the United States Colored Troops’ infantry regiments. It measures 5' x 5.75', and almost 6' x 7' in its frame.
Consolidating the former 3rd and 4th Regiments of the South Carolina Colored Infantry, the 21st participated in key operations against Charleston. After the city’s capture in Feb. 1865, the 21st Regiment garrisoned Charleston through the end of the war.
Erasmus W. Jones, chaplain of the 21st USCT, retained possession of the banner when the unit was mustered out of service in April 1866. Jones then traveled through his native Wales, displaying an extensive collection of slavery-related items, including this “Sons of Africa” banner. After Jones’ death in 1909, the banner remained for many years in Wales and England. During its time abroad, the banner was loaned for display in museums in Manchester and Middlesex, England. In 2003, it was offered at auction in the U.S.
The inner banner was produced between March 1864 and April 1866 (the dates of the 21st’s existence) by Schuyler, Hartley and Graham, a New York merchant house, noted for military and Masonic items. The appliquéd composition and bullion work was contracted to Baker, Godwin & Co., a small firm known for high quality Masonic and holy art works. The silk damask backing was likely adhered as an addition to the piece in the 1870’s though the fabric itself is circa 1850’s.
The multi-media inner banner is resplendent with iconography relevant to American, Masonic, and military traditions. Much of the panel’s surface is raised, either in appliqué, embroidery, gilded twine, or bullion wire. An unusual and noteworthy element of the banner’s imagery is a Native American striped blanket fragment that forms the banner’s background between the Greek columns.
Lettering on the banner includes various pertinent words and phrases: “FREEDOM,” “SONS OF AFRICA,” “UNION,” “this Flag….Preserve,” “21st USCT,” “CONSOLIDATED 1864,”
SLAVES,” and (on the reverse of the banner) “True as the Stars that are Shining.”
The banner is currently owned by Mr. Jay Johnson, of Purcellville, Va., for whom I restored it, and who has generously given permission to present the historical information and documentation of that restoration included here.
Upon receipt, the banner was extremely dusty, and was generally dirty overall. There was significant blue/green oxidation in evidence on the metal nail head spikes, on the gold fringes and woven metallic braid trims, and in a horizontal line across the red cotton backing fabric at the point where the metal spikes are set into the banner. The red backing fabric was also dusty and stained throughout.
The silk brocade fabrics comprising the wide border on the left and right sides of the central inner banner were in shreds, although the original silk brocade remains intact on the upper and lower borders. Several silk velvet tabs for hanging the banner were torn.
The Conservation treatment included the following: 1. All the gold metallic fringes,
2. The raised and painted el
3. The front and back of the MARCH “FREEDOM TO
the woven metallic braid trim, the nail head spikes, and their flat mounts were first cleaned with ammonia applied with cotton swabs. Vinegar was subsequently applied, after which the metals were flushed with distilled water. Additional cleaning of the metal work included application of mineral spirits in areas that previously resisted cleaning, and cleaning by mechanical means, lightly scraping away some oxidation.
ements of the inner banner were cleaned with distilled water and organic enzymes. The Navajo carpet fragment backing the center medallion was cleaned with sodium lauryl sulfate (a neutral pH surfactant) and distilled water. banner were hand vacuum cleaned with a low suction HEPA filtered cleaner through a screen of fiberglass mesh.
4. New Chinese silk brocade
5. Strips of the new, painted
6. Holes in the silk velvet hang
7. In order to support the
8. The perimeter of the banner
9. The metallic bullion fringes
10. The banner was framed in a
Conservation treatment was completed in October 2012.
material was located in a paisley pattern that approximated the design of the original 1850’s gold and white silk brocade, that had been painted brown for use in the banner. The new silk material was painted brown with matte watercolor paint.
replacement silk were cut, fitted, and stitched into the borders over the original fragments.
ing tabs were secured by insetting patches of new silk velvet into the holes and securing them to the interlining with Jade 403 PVA adhesive. banner’s hanging weight, a sheet of corrugated plastic board was attached to the strainer before it was covered with brown cotton velveteen mounting fabric which was stretched, pinned, and stapled to the mount.
was stitched to the mounting fabric with linen carpet thread. The inner banner was secured to the mount by stitching directly through the coroplast board with linen carpet thread.
and plied red and white silk fringes were secured to the banner by stitching with cotton and linen threads.